Improvement in basement-floors



UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

ELEAZAE s. vAUenAN, 0E ELATBUsE, NEw Youn.

IMPROVEMENT IN BASEMENT-FLOORS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 37,f40, dated April 8, 1873 application led February 5, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ELEAZAR S. VAUGHAN,

'of Flatbush, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented an improvement in the construction of iloors or bottoms and inner walls of basements, cellars, vaults, and other apartments, places, or structures, to render them impervious to water and to protect them from dampness, of which the following is a specification:

This invention7 which is especially, but not exclusively, applicable to basements, cellars, and other like structures, consists mainly in a novel construction of the floors or foundations thereof by means of tiles or rblocks made to form, when laid, a close or approximately close joint at or near their upper edges, b ut grooved or reduced below the latter all around to provide for drainage, and thereby to facilitate the laying of the upper stratum or stral tums, and whereby, on removing or leaving unlaid one or more of said tiles, a pump, if necessary, may readily be applied to draw oft accumulating or accumulated water during the progress of the work. The invention also consists in certain combinations, with said tiles, of different stratums used to complete the licor and superstructure or inner walls of the structure.

In the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this specication, Figure l represents a vertical section of a cellar, in part, with the bottom and walls constructed in accordance with my invention, and Fig. 2 a broken sectional plan of the same. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of one of the floor-tiles.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A is the bed, which may either be solid ground or any made or artificial substratum suitable to receive tiles or blocks B upon it. These tiles may be made of stone, cement, gravel and sand, clay and sand, or any other suitable plastic substance or compound, and are shaped to vmatch or fit so as to form a close surface or iloor, with cement introduced between them at their upper edges, but with the under portion of their sides reduced or cut away to form grooves or channels b all around them, for the purpose of providing perfect drainage to facilitate laying the upper stratums, or, by simply taking out one of the tiles, to provide for the attachment of a pump to draw 0H incoming water. This will be found of great advantage in the construction of cellars or other structures, the bottoms of which are below tide-water or beneath the regular drainage or sewerage level. Upon this tile-base is placedV a layer, C, of asphaltum or other bituminous or water-prooi' substance, and upon this a layer, D, of concrete or other heavy substance, including flags, to resist the upward pressure of wat-er. Upon this last layer D is the upper surface of the cellar-licor, consisting of a course, E, of bricks bedded in and having their joints iilled with hydraulic cement k. The inner side walls G are built up in bricks laid in asphal-tum, and united with the stratum C of asphaltum, and, when laid, coated 011 the inside with a layer, H, of asphaltum.

Metallic holdi'asts may be used to secure the inner side walls with the outer walls I of the structure.

By this improvement the diiculty which is so frequently experienced in keeping the water from rising and interfering with the progress ofthe work is greatly lessened, especially4 when the drainage level of the Iioor or bottom is below the sewer, in which case great weight or strength of material .is necessary to prevent incoming water from lifting the floor or bottom. By it, also, the cellar or other structure may be kept free from dampness, and much labor will be economized in the execution of the work, thereby reducing its eX- pense materially.

What is here claimed, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is

l. The tiles B, constructed so that when laid they form water ways or channels b all around thembelow their upper edges, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth. 2. The combination, with the tiles B, reduced around their edges to form grooves or channels, as described, of the waterproof layer C and upper stratum D of concrete or other weighty material, essentially as specilied.

3. The inner side walls G, laid in and coated with asphaltum It H, in combination with the licor-layers O D E and base-tiles B, constructed to eifect drainage, as described.

ELEAZAB S. VAUG-HAN.

Witnesses:

MICHAEL RYAN, HENRY T. BROWN. 

